Every 3000-5000 miles car owners should have the oil changed in their automobiles to prevent excessive engine wear. The current choices that car owners have for completing this necessary preventative maintenance generally include do-it-yourself alternatives or having the automobile serviced at a service center. Neither of these alternatives is either cost or time efficient, and generally lead to the oil being changed too infrequently.
Do-it-yourself alternatives generally have failed. Several patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,219 to Peralta and U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,660 to Bedi, attempt to provide a method to speed up the oil change process. However, the adoption of these devices as well as the purchase of other specialized tools that aid in the oil changing process has been poor due to the complexity of the devices and tools and expense. Further, changing the oil “the old fashion way” generally requires the car owner to reach areas of the car that are hard to get to and come in contact with oily car parts. This makes the task difficult, dirty and time consuming to the car owner. As a result, many people who rely on such methods tend to put off the job, which, in many instances, causes the oil to be changed too infrequently. This leads to increased wear and tear to the engines of many vehicles.
Of course, car owners can have their car serviced at an auto-shop. In fact, “quick lubes” businesses are prevalent in many areas. However, this option is an expensive one to the car owner. Further, while these places profess to be “quick,” long lines at the local quick-lube may force long waits. Also, the car owner must still get his car to the quick-lube (i.e., these businesses generally do not make house calls), which significantly increases the overall time spent getting the oil changed. The cost and inconvenience of going to an service center may cause car owners to put off changing the oil in their car. These people often wait until a “check engine” or “oil” dashboard light warns them that an oil change is needed immediately. Even then, though, an oil change is still a car ride way (i.e., either to the auto-parts store and home or to the local quick-lube) as the car owner has no way to change the oil in his car while driving. As a result, the car often ends up being driven past the time when its oil should have been changed. Again, this leads to increased wear and tear to the engines of many vehicles.
Therefore, there is a need for an automated oil changing device that is both cost-efficient and easy to use. Such a system should provide the car owner the option to change the oil whenever the optimum time for the change arises—evens if this means changing the oil while the vehicle is being driven.